


A Good Investment

by sonata_de_morte



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-03
Updated: 2013-07-03
Packaged: 2017-12-17 12:47:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/867715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sonata_de_morte/pseuds/sonata_de_morte
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry doesn't think he's asking for too much.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Good Investment

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Pride Challenge at snape_potter.

“Absolutely not.”   
  
“Severus, come on.”   
  
“Do not ‘come on’ me, you incorrigible child.”   
  
“But you like it when I come-”  
  
“ _Do. Not._ _Finish. That. Sentence._ ”   
  
“They’re my family, Severus. And I don’t see why-”  
  
“Yes, they are _your_ family. And I am under no obligation to do this. You had no right to try to force this on me, Potter.”   
  
Harry sighed. The last thing he wanted to do after a long day of teaching was fight with Severus. But of course, when you were dating Severus Snape, Headmaster of Hogwarts and all around ill-tempered grump, you had to be prepared for a fight any time.   
  
“I’m not forcing anything on you,” he retorted. “I’m asking-”  
  
Severus snorted with derision. “ _Asking_? The proper time to have asked me would have been before you opened your gargantuan mouth and told them that you were bringing your _boyfriend._ A term I resent highly, as you well know.”  
  
Harry had to resist making a crack about how Severus usually liked his big mouth, especially when it was wrapped around certain parts of his anatomy. “I’m just tired of-”  
  
“And I am tired of you being so presumptuous.”   
  
“Will you let me finish a bloody sentence?” Harry snapped finally, his voice ringing in the room. Severus looked surprised, and Harry’s temper deflated as quickly as it had arrived. He rubbed at his forehead and sighed again. “Fine. I’m sorry. I should have asked first. You’re not my boyfriend.” He picked up his bag and headed for the door.  
  
“Where are you going?” Severus demanded.   
  
“To my quarters,” Harry replied. “It’s obvious you’re not going to budge on this, and I have marking to do.”   
  
“You do your marking here.”   
  
That was true. There was a chair by the fire in Severus’ rooms that Harry had taken over for when he had essays or tests to mark, but he didn’t feel like staying there at the moment. Not when it was obvious that Severus had no intention of ever revealing the fact that they were in a relationship.  
  
“Yeah, well. Tonight I’m doing it in my rooms. Goodnight.” He closed the door with a click and walked down to his own room, locking the doors with a powerful spell.

* * *

Harry managed to avoid seeing Severus and both breakfast and lunch, but when he was cleaning up after his last class of the week, he was unsurprised to see Severus in the doorway of his classroom looking peevish.   
  
“You are upset with me,” he said, forgoing a greeting and getting straight to the point.  
  
“Maybe a little,” Harry replied, waving his wand to put the desks back in place after the practical lesson.  
  
“Because I refuse to be paraded?”   
  
Harry sighed. “I’m not trying to parade you anywhere, Severus. I don’t know why you think that.” He turned and looked at the man properly. “Sometimes I wonder…”   
  
Severus scowled. “Do you truly have so little faith in me?”  
  
“It isn’t about _faith_. I’m not trying to get you to agree to a full article in the Prophet, you know. I just want to tell my friends, my family, the people who matter to me other than you that I’m happy and who I’m happy with. I don’t think that’s too much to ask,” Harry said, looking away.  
  
There was a sharp exhale of breath, and Harry could already picture Severus’ face without having to look at it. That familiar little wrinkle would be between his eyebrows, his long fingers running thorough his hair. He’d be wearing his frustrated face, and it made Harry’s mouth twitch to think about it.   
  
The two of them had been together for months now, hiding their relationship because of the sensitive nature of a professor and headmaster dating and because Severus saw no reason why something that was between them needed to be shared with the whole world.   
  
Harry agreed with him. The whole world could go hang, but the Weasleys and Hermione deserved to know, and he wasn’t going to back down from that.  
  
When Severus let out a long suffering sigh, Harry grinned because that meant he had won.   
  
“Very well,” Severus said. “We will go to this dinner. But you will swear the ginger horde to secrecy, and I reserve the right to be cross if it’s splashed across the papers the next morning.”   
  
Harry grinned and moved closer to him, pushing at lock of inky hair out of Severus’ face. “Yes, yes, alright. No one’s going to tell, though.” He leaned up and pressed his lips to Severus’, smiling when he kissed back. “Thank you.”   
  
“You can show me just how grateful you are in my rooms after dinner,” Severus replied. “You left me to sleep alone last night, and I should punish you for that.”   
  
Oh, but that did sound promising.

  


* * *

The silence inside the Burrow had reached something of an absurd level. Granted that was after Ron had dropped the dish he was holding, sending it shattering across the floor. Every pair of eyes in the room was clapped on them, and Harry could practically feel Severus grinding his teeth next to him.   
  
“Harry,” Molly said, making the first attempt. “It’s so good to see you. A-and you, Headmaster Snape.”   
  
Severus nodded. “Molly. Arthur.”   
  
“Bloody hell, mate. You said you were bringing your boyfriend not your boss,” Ron said, using his wand to clean up the mess he had made. “We got all excited, and…” his voice faltered. “No. No! Are you fucking serious?”   
  
“Language, Ronald,” Molly snapped. “Harry? Is this…are you and…?”   
  
No one seemed to be able to say it, so Harry took the liberty. “Yes. Severus and I are together.” The silence following the pronouncement was just as bad as it had been when the two of them walked in, and Harry fidgeted. He could taste the tension rolling off of Severus.  
  
Maybe this had been a mistake.  
  
He was just considering suggesting that they leave when Molly smiled. “Well, don’t just stand there, you two. Come to the table. Harry dear, you sit here,” she said, bustling around the magically expanded table to point to a chair. “And Severus, you can sit here next to him. I hope everything is to your liking.”   
  
Severus looked down at Harry, blinking in confusion, and Harry shrugged. “Best do as she says, I reckon,” he murmured, shrugging.  
Molly’s words prompted the rest of the family into movement, and Harry received numerous claps to the shoulder as he made his way around the table.  
  
He plopped down in the seat that had been indicated and watched as Severus moved to do the same. The Headmaster tentatively struck up a conversation with Arthur and Bill while the food was passed around.  
  
Hermione, who was seated to Harry’s left leaned in. “I can’t believe you managed to keep this a secret for so long,” she hissed.  
  
“How do you know how long it’s been?”   
  
“Well, he’s here, isn’t he? I figure if he weren’t invested, he would have told you to bugger off and made you come alone. So it has to have been a substantial amount of time.”   
  
Harry smiled because he couldn’t deny that. “Yeah, I guess it has. I didn’t want to lie to you all about it, but-”  
  
“But you’re dating Severus Snape,” Hermione said, cutting him off. “I understand. Ron will understand, too, once he wraps his head around it. I think he’ll need to eat something first, and then he’ll be happy for you.”   
  
“I can’t believe no one’s upset about it,” Harry murmured, shaking his head.   
  
“Why would they be?”   
  
“Because he’s…I mean…” Harry chanced a glance at Severus out of the corner of his eye, watching him eat Molly’s chicken like it was the most natural thing in the world for a former Death Eater to be sitting at the Weasley dinner table.   
  
Hermione shook her head. “I think it’s enough that you trust him, Harry. We also know that you wouldn’t have brought him if _you_ weren’t invested, too.”   
  
“Oh.” Harry blinked and then smiled when Severus’ thigh brushed his under the table. “Yeah. Invested is a good word.”


End file.
